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AI-Powered Alternative Data Drives Extreme Real Estate Market Research Disruption By Merilee Kern, MBA
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Merilee Kern Forbes Business Council, Newsweek Expert Forum and Rolling Stone Culture Council member Merilee Kern, MBA is a senior-level brand, leadership and communications analyst and strategist. As Founder and Executive Editor of The Luxe List, she works with companies, agencies, C-suite thought leaders and subject ma!er experts worldwide across a wide array of B2B and B2C companies. Kern is also host of both the “Savvy Ventures” business TV show that airs nationally on FOX Business TV and Bloomberg TV and the “Savvy Living” lifestyle TV show airing in top U.S. markets.
umerous indicators make clear that the next five years will usher in extreme transformation for a multitude of commercial and res-
idential real estate sectors, banks and lenders as well as the global economy at large. This begs the question: what is driving such significant and rapid change? This big question just might be answered in two words: alternative data. Real estate and banking-related companies that are slow to incorporate alternative data into their research and development, marketing, investment, risk analysis and other key processes expose themselves
The last decade has seen a wealth of new data.
to extreme opportunity loss at best and operational peril at worst.
ment firms seeking market outperformance,
tions, press releases, management presenta-
known as “alpha.”
tions and other well-entrenched mainstream sources, today’s breed of alternative data
For example, active investment management firms — including hedge funds and even
As an ever-evolving methodology, the last
sets are being compiled from wide rang-
private equity funds — risk being outmaneu-
decade has ushered in a myriad of new
ing and disparate sources. These include
vered by competitors leveraging alternative
types and sources of alternative data. Unlike
financial transactions, satellites, sensors
data in their securities valuation and trading
traditional data made available by financial
and IoT-enabled devices, e-commerce por-
signal process. Alternative data has emerged
exchanges and indexes, SEC filings, financial
tals, public records, mobile devices, social
as an essential tool for investment manage-
statements, corporate filings, analyst predic-
media, web traffic and more. However, web
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